Dr. Michelle Norris:

The focus of our activities reflects the focus of government policy in social housing. In recent years, that policy has changed much. In the past we funded local authorities to acquire land for social housing building. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, in turn, funded them with, basically, 100% capital grants to build houses. The voluntary housing sector was funded in the same way.

As the State has experienced a severe fiscal crisis, the programme of capital grants for social house building was cut down radically. Now the focus of government policy is on using the remaining capital grant money for social housing regeneration and funding voluntary housing agencies to get social housing. My understanding is that the main reason for this lies with where the loan lies. If we loan money to a voluntary housing body, it does not lie on the State’s books as part of the national debt. If we loan to local authorities, it does. In my day job, I lecture in University College Dublin and I research this area for a living.

My interpretation is that this was driven primarily by practical concerns about the size of the national debt. Practical concerns will be a key problem if we are to continue to deliver social housing in the way it has traditionally been delivered in this country, which is mainly via the local authority sector.